Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Feb 2009)
Radiofrequency Field Distribution Assessment in Indoor Areas Covered by Wireless Local Area Network
Abstract
Electromagnetic environment becomes day by day more congested. Radio communication systems in the short range are now part of everyday life, and there is a need to also assess the pollution level due to their emission if we take into account human health and protection. There is consistent scientific evidence that environmental electromagnetic field may cause undesirable biological effects or even health hazards. Present paper aims at giving a view on exposure level due to wireless local area networks (WLAN) emission solely, as part of environmental radiofrequency pollution. Highly accurate measurements were made indoor by using a frequency-selective measurement system and identifying the correct settings for an error-minimum assessment. We focused on analysis of the electric flux density distribution inside a room, in the far field of the emitting antennas, in case of a single network communication channel. We analyze the influence the network configuration parameters have on the field level. Distance from the source and traffic rate are also important parameters that affect the exposure level. Our measurements indicate that in the immediate vicinity of the WLAN stations the average field may reach as much as 13% from the present accepted reference levels given in the human exposure standards.
